Who needs an intro. Other then it gets weird but trust me it'll make sense.
I close the book I had just finished reading and put it back into my shelf containing other books that I frequently read and checked my phone seeing that I had to get a move on.
I was a detective working on a cold case. The agency had me digging around in some files dating back 5 years ago and one caught my interest dealing with a writer. They didn't know they had this on the record so I took it upon myself to solve it.
Fortunately I managed to trace its origins to Bright Falls and someone named Kuki Mellows. Managing to get a one on one interview with her and dealing with her assistant was a hassle.
I pack my stuff into my bag and set off in my car and take the directions given to me by the assistant and eventually arrive at the location being the park. I park in the parking lot passing by kids and their families playing and having fun as I see a lone winged woman starting out to the lake and holding a flower.
"Uh Ms. Mellows?"
She turned around and I could see her eyes widen but immediately withdraw as something is off.
"Is something the matter?"
Kuki: "N-No....you just reminded me of my husband. I'm assuming your (Y/n) (L/n)."
"Yes that is me. I'm here about that interview regarding that cold case 5 years ago on your husband that famous novelist."
Kuki looked at me almost surprised.
Kuki: "Wait you remember him?"
"Why wouldn't I? He's my favorite novelist of course I can't place his name on my tongue and I can't look at my books because he never used his real name."
Kuki instead seemed fixated on me a bit.
"Uh ma'am."
Kuki: "Apologies. You have to understand. My husband's existence has been erased and therefore no one remembers him but me and well it appears you for some reason."
"Ma'am apologies. But this isn't some kind of book. He can't simply erase himself."
Kuki: "Then tell me. Have you researched him at all?"
"Only the case files but not really no."
Kuki: "When you do your gonna find nothing."
"Fine I did but there's no mention of him and his books but clearly someone wrote these books so he must exist. But I have some questions. Can you describe your husband?"
Kuki: "My husband was any other gentleman. He was kind and sincere but underneath his exterior he was fighting demons and refused any sort of help. Stubborn. It's why he saved me."
"Saved you?"
Kuki: "Mr. (L/n). You may think of me as insane. But there are things that are beyond our own natural world. Things that shouldn't be tampered with."
"Ms. Mallow. I understand deeply that your husband disappearance has affected you but it can be explained."
Kuki: "You know...you sound like him...always thinking there's more to the story because you refuse to believe in reality. It's why he always wrote about dreams."
"Dreams?"
Kuki: "He....had fears eating at him...fears of disappointment and was all around a skittish person around those subjects."
"He didn't talk about his fears openly?"
Kuki: "Yes you could say that."
"Next questions. Was there any signs of him being suicidal?"
Kuki: "Oh dear heavens no. Yes he may have been depressed but never thought of that. We made sure he got therapy and eventually those dark thoughts never resurfaced."
"Last question off the record. Do you happen to know the actual events of Bright Falls? When going over my files and records there's no detailed report on Bright Falls. But clearly someone submitted the forms in the case of him but redacted many important parts."
Kuki: "Unfortunately....I'm not at liberty to disclose such events. Yes the events were 5 years ago but saying them just brings bad memories."
"Of course. Uh apologies if I brought bad thoughts."
Kuki: "Your phone it's been vibrating 5 times in the last 20 minutes we've been talking."
"Sorry I should've turned it off."
Kuki: "Your distressed."
"Im...being stalked by someone."
Kuki: "Could it be connected to my husband?"
"Doubt it. Only 3 people worked on that case file and 2 of the 3 passed away and the other simply up and vanished. No clue where they went."
Kuki: "Well be careful. Your entering a world that no one should be entering or even opening."
"Ok Ms. Mallows. Have a good day."
I left as she waved at me and resumed to look at the lake and crush the flower.
———
"Hello?"
??: "Who's the woman?"
"Ok who is this? You've been stalking me for the past 2 years!"
??: "As far as you know handsome~"
I growl as the person on the other side was poking fun at me. I was outside of the library in the parking lot and needed a quick read.
"Listen I don't have time for this bullshit. Just leave-"
??: "Your investigating the case involving Kuki Mallows husband."
"Y-Yes...how did you know?"
??: "Well your history isn't squeaky clean. Moved around the foster care system. Abused for the most simplest of deeds and yet look how successful you became. Investigating possibly one of the greatest writers in the world."
"Listen you son of a bitch. If you target anyone. I'll personally make sure your eating from a straw."
??: "Ooo so violent~ I can't wait till the end of this story~"
"Wait what did you say?"
....
I look at my phone as the person behind had hanged up as that last line hit my head and so I went to my bag and took out a book made from the same writer.
Chapter 27......the protagonist armed only with a torch and his sheer will stared at the darkness as it only uttered one haunting sentence "I can't wait till the end of the story!"
I hesitate and close my book and make a quick call to a friend.
"Hey....yeah listen I need your help. Meet me at my home. And I need you to bring something. Oh and make sure your hot followed."
——
I sat at my couch drinking some water and waited until I saw my partner arrive carrying a box without even saying hello.
"You did it?"
Riza Shinobu
Riza: "You owe me immensely for grabbing all of the these documents. I had to pull strings on my colleagues and bypass it. And that drink again? How come you won't tell me what exactly it is?"
"Because you'd only laugh if I told you what it was. I make sure to keep my stuff hidden from prying eyes especially drinks."
I take a file out from the box and see that the lead investigator was redacted and most of the names were also heavily redacted.
"What's with the heavy redaction?"
Riza: "It was a high profile case and so all the investigators were told to keep their mouth shut. Things happened and it was beyond our expertise."
"Our?"
Riza: "Uh. I mean they're expertise."
"Ah....well it says here 3 investigations took place with no conclusive evidence. Any witnesses are recorded here unfortunately no video evidence ever made it through and was ultimately lost."
I play the recording and we both listen as it sounded like it was a one on one interview discussing the events after.
Interviewer: "Okay the date is 2018 and time is 2:00. Can you tell us what you remember uh Lucy?"
Lucy: "I'll try. The entire thing was hazy. I just remember how the entire town was shrouded in darkness. These dark manifestations came."
Interviewer: "These dark manifestations. In our other interviews with other residents of the town they said the same thing and it was a regular occurrence to see these apparitions?"
"Who's the interviewer? Sounds heavily distorted and these manifestations."
I stare at Riza as she grabbed a cup of coffee and grabbed a muffin from the box.
Riza: "Apparently all the interviewers had to remain unknown just in case if these files ever were released. Apparently most of the investigators are actually dead. Or all of them. Most of them just up and left."
Lucy: "Yes. Over the years I lived there I found that occasionally these dark manifestations would appear but there would be more every 5 years."
Interviewer: "Every 5 years? Are you saying this is on a timer?"
The new interviewed person was obviously a man and sounded tough.
Hunter: "Hunter is my name. I don't take kindly to government folk but I do owe that writer."
Interviewer: "Writer? You mean redacted. He helped you?"
Hunter: "We didn't get his name but if that's what he called I owe him. He helped save everyone and he just disappeared. Think you can find him?"
The recording ends as I rub my head and Riza hands me a cup of coffee and thank her taking a sip and cringing my face until she dropped a 2 cubes of sugar and shot her a quiet thanks.
Riza: "You know (Y/n). How come you haven't settled down?"
"Oh I'm not really a family man really. Besides I don't think I'm cut out for that lifestyle."
Riza: "Shame. We could've been a real dynamic duo."
"Is that a proposal?"
Riza: "Tell you what. If your still available in the next 2 years you have to marry me."
"Hahahaha. Now why would I lower my standards for you."
Riza: "Oh you wound me with that comment. And if your lowering your standards you should look at yourself in the mirror."
I chuckle and once I was done with the files I stash them under my bed and see her taking stuff out of my fridge.
"What are you doing?"
Riza: "I saw those empty ramen packets in your trash can. I'm surprised you even get enough nutrients in your system to stay fit."
I looked down as I see a missed call and a voicemail and check my phone realizing who it was.
??: "You should really watch who your friends with. Who knows what might happen to them. Could end up in a ditch somewhere. Possibly found next year or never."
I pause for bit knowing it was just a voicemail.
??: "I know your holding your breath. You don't know what to do. Well let me tell you. Your gonna give everything up for me. If you don't well.....I guess Riza will be occupied for a couple at the bottom of the sea. Ciao darling."
The voicemail ends as Riza checks on me while I stare at my phone and comes over to me.
Riza: "You okay?"
I definitely wasn't okay. Riza was just threatened by an unknown person that was stalking me. I knew she could read my emotions without even asking me.
"I......I have a stalker. She's been stalking me for the last 2 years but I think she's actually been doing it longer."
Riza sat me down and served me a bowl of spaghetti and water and served herself some while helping me figure this out.
Riza: "You know her?"
"How could I? The only people I interact with is at work and even then I never dated no one for the past decade."
Riza: "Damn your game sucks."
We discuss more about this mystery stalker and how she knows where I am, friends, coworkers, and even family.
Riza: "I'll leave the files in your apartment. Just don't lose any of it. I need those back and put them back in the service files."
I nod and bid her farewell with a goodnight and return to my bedroom and go over my evidence board with Kuki and the recordings. The main question still remained on my head. What happened to you. And where are you.
I went to bed and began to dream....or so I thought...
——
I was responding to a possible domestic situation and since no other units were nearby and only Riza. Exiting my vehicle I breathe into my gloves as it was a cold night and enter the apartment complex.
I knock on the door the person made a call from and got no response and knocked harder.
"Police. Ma'am?"
I sigh and open the door brandishing my sidearm and flashlight entering the apartment to see bloody handprints on the wall.
"This is (Y/n) (L/n) need backup possible attack."
Stepping forward I see blood drag marks and even smaller handprints. I struggle and began to move again and push the door seeing a dead body. It was a male with a knife stuck deep in his back and began to lean over to put my fingers on his neck.
"Possible homicide-"
Immediately the wall next to me burst with what appeared to be a woman wearing a deer skull with horns and a bloody knife as I look at the room she came from seeing a body under a pile of sheets with blood soaking through the sheets.
I pant and see my sidearm that was thrown to the side. The woman grips the knife harder making her knuckles go white and rush towards me it as I dove for my sidearm and grabbed it with my fingertips and fired point blank range straight into the body of the attacking female.
She fell back as I breathed heavily catching my breath and got up to survey the area and check if all is clear. I turn on my flashlight and examine the table seeing missing posters and missing of the....wait...that can't be right? The woman?
Before I can properly register the photos I turn to see the woman had sprung back up and hoisted me up by my neck and prepped the knife in her hand.
Woman: "You! Will! Pay! (Y/n)!"
I close my eyes waiting for the dream to end only for someone to rush in and a night light to follow as I see Riza jam a flare into the woman's chest as she was staggered and drop me as black smoky trails left her body and looked at us as Riza pointed her pistol at the woman's head and fired a single round ending the woman's life as she falls back with a thud.
"Oh fuck. This dream is crazy."
Riza looks down at me and bends down holding my shoulder looking at me as she hands me my weapon back.
Riza: "Dream? What dream?"
"I'm gonna wake up in my bed and it's gonna be 2023."
Riza: "2023? It's 2018 you don't remember?"
"This is a dream or I'm having a massive brain aneurysm."
Riza looks at me worryingly and looks at the missing posters and skims through it and looks at me.
Riza: "(Y/n)......what's my favorite food...."
"Oh uh pizza. You love pizza with pickles and mushrooms for some reason. Why?"
I get back up and she points her handgun at me.
Riza: "Wrong. Dead fucking wrong. What's your favorite drink he never told me what I was but he always grabbed it."
"It was a matcha mint coffee with whipped cream. Please Riza...put it down...."
Riza: "Your not my (Y/n)....so why should I lower my gun. Tell me who exactly you are. Or else this bullet is going to lodge itself straight into your fucking brain."
"I'm (Y/n) (L/n)....I got scolded by a the instructor when I accidentally fired him with a paintball in the crotch and was made to run 3 extra miles but after everyone had-"
Riza: "Respect for you at the academy..."
"So your not going to shoot me?"
She holstered her gun and looked at mess if sizing me up which was odd by her standards.
Riza: "Man you sure you don't work out?"
"Occasionally. Anyway. Uh mind explaining uh everything?"
Riza: "I knew you weren't here since you didn't double tap and use light. These monsters are called remnants of the darkness. Leftovers from bright falls incident."
"Incident?"
Riza: "6 years ago I used to work near bright falls and some 90 odd people disappeared overnight. Only for 50 came back the next morning. We found a woman on the outskirts completely wet and covered in water. I knew of these remnants. People that the darkness broke down and consumed and filling them with nothing but vile and hatred. Of course I've been here hunting them."
"Almost sounds like mine. In 2018 same place. The whole town completely closed and no contact. Next day only 70 returned. Along with the novelist."
Riza: "Novelist? You mean Kuki mallows?"
"No her husband. Her husband was a famed author but he disappeared."
Riza: "But....he died in a car crash...."
"What? W-Well applying universal logic-"
I'm thrown on the floor coughing up blood as Riza rushes to my side and breath as she holds my hand. As I began to speak words that I wasn't thinking.
"D-Don't!....*cough* Don't trust R-!"
———
I wake up in a hospital bed with tubes attached to my body and Riza next to me asleep with a simple bedsheet covering her sleeping body. Looking off to the side I see a calendar and spot 2023.
I rest my head as Riza stirs and sees me awake and gets up holding my hand tightly.
Riza: "Oh my god! Your okay!"
"Ow, ow, ow let go of my hand."
Riza sheepishly lessens her grip but still holds on as I look around.
"What happened?"
Riza: "You were....attacked....when I was coming over to check on you someone had broken in via your window and stabbed you. The knife narrowly missed your heart about 2 inches. When I got there I knew something was amiss when I entered and saw how trashed it was and saw you with a knife."
"They we're certainly bold enough so when is doc gonna let me go?"
Riza: "Couple of weeks at best. Hey tell me...what were you spouting off in the ambulance? You kept repeating the word return."
I look back at her and lay my head back and lie through my teeth.
"Just a bad dream Riza.....just a bad dream...."
She sighed and took a pair of handcuffs out and locked them to my wrist and the bed.
Riza: "Can't have you sleepwalking so this is the next best thing. Get some sleep. I'm doing everything I can to pick any trail on that stalker. Night partner."
She leaves the room as I try to piece together what happened but all it would is make my head burst into pain and just look around for the rest of my time.
———
I pat my chest seeing the scar and put my coat on as it had snowed the last couple of days and no word on that stalker of mine.
Riza: "There we go. Fresh and clean as a whistle."
"Thanks Riza again. I owe you a coffee next time."
Riza: "Ha. Better be a date then. I'll swing by your place later. I need those documents back."
I nod to her and get discharged and get a call.....even though I shouldn't I check it....
??: "Wow wow you even survived those injuries I caused. If you had died I would've joined you. Wouldn't you like that? A blood marriage. Your blood with mine. A shame I didn't take the blood from the knife."
"Just tell me what do you want. Leave my friends out of this."
??: "You mean Riza. You know she's not telling you the full truth and you trust her blindly. It would look like you two were married. If you have any inkling of trust in her go through the records. Trust me like how you blindly trust her. Ciao darling dear."
She hangs up as the station wasn't that far and had permission to go through the archived reports after some light bribing with coffee and donuts as an added bonus.
Mike: "Let's see here Bright Falls 2018....98, 89, 70, ah here we go 2018."
"Wait a minute the name. Lead investigator was Riza Shinobu? She said she wasn't on it."
Mike: "Hm? That's not true. Riza was first on that case 5 years ago and the lead investigator. Not that long ago she came by to find some papers dating to that scene. Asked me if she could redact certain things. Of course I could but I would need a backups of those if they got lost or stolen. Something up?"
My head was swimming and left the archives to get some real air and wiped my head of sweat and began to walk home shrugging the snow off and once I did immediately went for my room and began to lay my evidence on the floor.
"Riza purposely redacted evidence of her involvement? Her real past? Why? Why hide so much from me...."
A knock on the door shakes me and I sweep my papers under the bed and answer the door to see Riza again with coffee and some pizza.
Riza: "Hey darling dear. I brought us the usual. I got you your matcha mint coffee with whipped cream."
My blood ran cold as ice and followed with the movements letting her in as she set everything on the table with her grabbing the plates.
"Riza. I never told you my favorite drink....."
She pauses and looks down and sets the plates down on the table and I holsters her sidearm.
Riza: "Always with that fucking intuition. Sit your ass down and have some pizza. Do it before a bullet is lodged in your fucking brain. I don't care to be honest. I can always try again and again and again until I get the right fucking version."
I sit on the chair and take a slice as she sits down and serves herself a slice of pizza with pickles.
"So tell me. What exactly the fuck is going on?"
Riza: "Well that stalker? It was me."
"How long...."
Riza: "Ever since well 2018. I was working a dead end job in Washington. Then comes along a certain somebody popping up from a town of nothing. You see I work with an organization secrecy hush hush all that business. When they found you you eerily matched someone of interest. The writer. Stay with me. Of course it was my job to monitor you. Give you a fake background and fake well everything. I wasn't expecting you to join the police academy. It's almost as if your very existence is tied to that moment."
"That's because it is."
Riza: "Ey wrong really. After said events of bright falls I began hearing voices. Voices that told me of you and experiences of you. I wanted them I wanted to live those experiences."
"This doesn't explain why you've been targeting me!"
Riza: "Don't raise your voice at me. You don't understand. If you die I die. I follow you to the next one and the next one after that. Like a book that gets made into a series. Or a seed floating into new fields."
She drinks her coffee as I only eyed the handgun still in her hand gripped tightly and put to the back of my mind of even defending myself and just relax and eat my slices.
Riza: "As for the obsession.....do you know how hard it is when you have these dreams that are almost real and lifelike. Because they are. You may be an extension or a copy of Him. But your mine just like He belongs to Her. It's futile to resist. So please. Stop going further and just stay in the present."
She extends her hand towards me and I reach out and hold it feeling an unknown weight off my shoulders and for some reason I smile.
———
Him: "Your starting to really get under my skin...."
Her: "As if you can change what's written in stories~"
Him: "I don't care about changing. It's all part of the series."
Her: "What are you playing at?"
Him: "There's always more then one battle in a war. I'm just setting the final scenes. After all....the finale has to out in a bang.."
Her: "Hmph. We'll see how that turns out..."
The two continued to write on their typewriters eyeing the page that read "The Threads" a showdown between free will and Control.
I'm going to bed y'all. I want to see how you interpret this craziness. Next one will be definitely Yandere. Good night and good luck.